Foreign Relations: While the Bullets Whiz

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"I know some of you fellows think I get a little irritated at times," President Johnson told aides. "But it's always about the minor things. When the bullets start whizzing around my head, that's when I'm calmest."

Last week the President calmly but measurably stepped up the action in Viet Nam: he sent U.S. jets thundering across the 17th parallel, blasting North Viet Nam targets not on a tit-for-tat reprisal basis but in clear declaration of intent to continue striking north until Hanoi stops sending men and arms south. And at his order, two battalions of U.S. Marines—a total of 3,500 men —prepared to move into South Viet Nam to stiffen defenses around the big airbase at Danang.

Hot Pursuit. Johnson had originally scheduled the air attacks for Feb. 19. But in Viet Nam the weather and the political climate are both uncertain, and coups or clouds kept getting in the way. Finally 19 propeller-driven South Vietnamese Skyraiders and 20 U.S. Air Force Super Sabres took off from Danang and headed for the North Vietnamese torpedo-boat base at Quangkhe, 65 miles north of the 17th parallel. There they relentlessly clobbered berths, repair shops, ammo dumps and supply warehouses with 70 tons of bombs, destroying an estimated 70% of the targets and sinking three to five PT boats in the bargain.

At the same time, the U.S. assembled a force of more than 120 U.S. Super Sabres, Thunderchiefs and B57 Canberra bombers from Bienhoa and Da nang in South Viet Nam, as well as bases in Thailand and possibly the Philippines. Some 30 of the planes peeled off and headed for Quangkhe, while the main force converged on Xombang (appropriately pronounced zom-bang), a jungle staging area and supply dump for infiltrators, ten miles north of the South Viet Nam frontier. More than 120 tons of bombs rained down on Xombang, and U.S. officers later reported "severe damage." All told, one South Vietnamese and five U.S. planes were downed during the raids, but five of the six pilots were rescued (see following story).

There was abundant additional evidence of U.S. determination to increase the cost of what it calls Hanoi's "continuing aggression" against the south. U.S. jets continued to bomb and strafe Viet Cong guerrillas within South Viet Nam—something they had not been doing until two weeks ago. Others flew over Laos regularly in raids aimed at demolishing the jungle roads that the Reds are building to facilitate troop and supply movements. Moreover, U.S. pilots were flying missions under new "rules of engagement" authorizing hot pursuit of enemy jets right into Red China, if necessary. So far, it has not been necessary; though Peking now has supersonic MIG-19s and MIG-21s sitting at airbases in Yunnan province, just over the North Viet Nam border, and on Hainan Island, 150 miles east of the Viet Nam coast, the planes have been inactive.